Time machine anyone?

First up, here's a link to another post about freezer paper piecing from a Queen of hand piecing, Linda Franz:

http://www.geocities.com/homebays/handpiece.html

Linda and I go way back, back to when we were first working on our first DJ quilts together, I guess in around 1998. This link is to her old website, not the lindafranz.com one. Her techniques describe hand piecing, but they are perfect for machine piecers too. I had forgotten about this website until I saw it mentioned in an old email from her. Have fun with it.

And if you don't want to read about my stressful day yesterday ... look away now ... if you wanna hear whiny Tazzie ... read on ...

I really don't like to be whiny, so I'll try not to be ... but heavens, I sure could have used a couple of extra hours yesterday. You see, I lost some of them!

I had a lot of running around to do yesterday, but first of all, I had to wait for the appliance man to come. You wouldn't believe it, but the rangehood that went into the new part of the kitchen broke! Well, okay, it happens, and we were happy to get someone to come over so fast. The thing with the appliance guys is that they tell you they're coming on a certain day, but won't give you an afternoon or morning ... just a day. I needed to post the quilt off to the magazine yesterday so really had to go to the post office, so called to find out approximately how he was positioned timewise, and found we were 9th on the list, and he'd definitely be after lunch. So Cam and I dashed to the post at around 11am and were there only a few minutes and back to the car again.

Of course, as I was starting the car, I got a call from the appliance guy telling me he'd called by and found we weren't home and left a note on my door to make another appt. Well, I was only 5 mins down the road, so he told me he'd go to the next job and come back again. Very kind of him I thought. He was only at our house for 5mins and let us know it can't be fixed, needs to be replaced. All is well.

Next, I needed to visit a quilting friend to drop off my gift for the group Xmas dinner. I can't make it as I'm working at the quilt store. As I'm getting Cam ready with his lunch etc, the cell phone rings and the doorbell rings all at once. At the door is my friend Jane dropping in for a coffee and bringing presents for Amy's birthday, and on the phone is Amy's school letting me know that there had been an accident on the class excursion and they'd be late getting back ... around 4.30. Amy was fine they assured me, but they couldn't chat, they had 30 parents to call. Oh my, I was starting to get that tight feeling in the chest ... like things were starting to go awry ... I had to rethink plans. I was 'booked' to take Amy to visit Grandpa at 4.30 to collect her birthday present, and if I got there at 5.00 he'd be edgy because it would be too close to his dinnertime, and at 95 they don't like their routine interrupted ... he's the kind of guy that you make an appt. to see and then he will tell you it's 'carriages' at whatever time, meaning you need to leave at ... in the nicest possible way of course :-)

So, after Jane left, we dashed to my quilting friend's house, and then to Grandpa's over the other side of town and got back by 4.30 to school. Where we waited for Amy ... and waited ... and waited ... and waited. Until 6.00pm!! There were a lot of panicked parents around, and they finally all got back. They had gone to an adventure playground for the day for school breakup and one of the boys had fallen and hurt himself and had to be taken to hospital to have his neck x-rayed. I understand everything is fine ... and of course I was concerned for the boy ... but Amy had her dance concert/presentation last night, and I had to have her dressed/fed/at the venue, and my parents picked up by 7.00 OMG!! Well, we all made it thru, but I was frazzled.

Today is a busy day too, but a much more reasonable sort of busy, with so many fewer variables. I feel sure I'll be able to do something quilty today too!